Analysis: "I like
to be in America"

The text "I like to be in
America" is a song from the musical "West Side Story" by Leonard
Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim.The song deals with
the great differences between white and non-white Americans.The setting of the
musical is the West Side of New York City, a poor area where many Puerto
Ricans live.This song is sung by different
groups of Puerto Rican girls who have come from San Juan, the Capital
of Puerto Rico, to live in America.They compare the well-known version
of the American Dream with the reality of their own experiences.

The song is divided
into 8 stanzas. The 1st stanza tells about the freedom
in America which must be paid for. The 2nd stanza reports
about the possibility to buy on credit but you have to pay the interest
rates. Furthermore it is mentioned that you can't do anything with the
goods you can buy because you have nothing else left. In the 3rd
stanza you can read that everything is growing and getting better all the
time, but the housing situation of the immigrants is getting worse. The
4th
stanza tells the reader about the many new houses which are not let to
foreigners. The 5th stanza adds that you can have a life
on the sunny side of America if you are a white fighter. The 6thstanza
shows that freedom is distributed among different classes, so that you
are free to do what is left to your class to do. The 7th
stanza is a bit different from the previous ones. It starts by criticizing
the dirt and crime in America that you can't realize that you are living
in the famous American dream of a better world. In the 8thstanza
the girls express their idea to go back to Puerto Rico but they must fear
that they can't find anyone there because they have all emigrated to the
USA.

The authors try to convey an
insight into the glorified American life as far as immigrants are concerned.
Their message is that you should not believe in the tales of the Promised
Land where everything is possible without doing anything. They want the
listener to face the darker sides of America which belong to the positive
aspects as well.

My own view of the matter is that the authors are right to emphasize
that there are two different sides of American reality as we can face in
Germany too. If you want to get on well you must know and follow the rules
of the country in which you want to live. It's nonsense to think that the
people of the country will change according to your imagination.